By Peter Semone
In late January the Tourism Ministers of the MEKONG countries met on the sidelines of the ASEAN Tourism Fair (ATF) which was held in Bangkok, Thailand. At this meeting, the Ministers approved a three year subregional marketing plan which I was asked to prepare during the last quarter of 2007.
The ambitious plan sets out to develop a common and complementary destination brand for the MEKONG countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the two Chinese Provinces of Guangxi and Yunnan). The MEKONG destination brand would need to be different from individual country brands, ie. Thailand’s ‘Amazing’ or Vietnam’s ‘Hidden Charm’ campaigns. At the same time, it would need to embrace the common tourism product offerings of the seven destinations.
The strongest thematic commonality between the countries is their extraordinary nature, their fascinating people and cultures and their traditional community lifestyles. These destination features can be experienced in any of the seven member destinations of the Mekong Tourism Office.
Much deliberation between friends, stakeholders and even family, has lead to the current favorite slogan ‘The MEKONG: Explore Asia’s Last Frontier’. Other ideas included ‘Pure and Simple’, ‘Back to Basics’, ‘A River Runs Through It’, ‘Meet the Mekong’, ‘Come Find Yourself’ and ‘Asia’s Outback’.
Not only have we concocted a slogan, but we’ve also asked for some artists to develop an appropriate logo that depicts a rustic MEKONG with a flowing river and verdant mountains as a backdrop. The Mekong Tourism Office will be running an online survey to get honest input from our friends and stakeholders on our proposed logo. For these sorts of important decisions, an inclusive approach is vital to the brand’s success. Stakeholders are much more likely to ‘buy into’ something that they feel they’ve had a say in.
Take a moment to download the Mekong Marketing Plan and provide us with input. If nothing else you’ll learn more about our ambitious Visit Mekong Year 2010 plan.
The Mekong: Explore Asia’s Last Fontier?
Hmmm. There could be some confusion.